So I would like to know why you are excited about MaidSafe. I’m not so interested in how you think we should promote it at this point. I’m wondering why you are generally excited about it…
I’ll go first with this youtube video:
7 Likes
Me too, Chadrick…I’m mad as hell & I’m not gonna take it anymore! Seriously man, people need to get a little indignant about getting their privacy ripped off. I want to restore my own and then help others get theirs back too. Being free and being able to be secure in my business and personal life is what it’s all about. So, thanks for posting this!
3 Likes
I’m excited for quite a few reasons, future possible benefits include:
- Empowering the third world and stimulating micro-economies.
2 Helping make govt represent the will of the people ,rather than the Corporations - Educating people and ridding the world of organised religion and its harmful effects
- Dismantling the Capitalist system and introducing a more egalitarian market economy.
5 Fight the creeping Orwellian surveillance society.
…actually I could go on for ever, so I’ll give someone else a chance…lol
4 Likes
To regain my privacy and feel I can converse safely without being eavesropped on as an individual, and also so “we the public” cannot be so easily monitored, analysed, bought and sold, manipulated or controlled by those with secret access to us as individuals or as a populous.
To enable the good, collaborative, creative, sharing, communal outward looking side of humanity to regain sway.
To bring transparency and accountability back to governance (yes, that word again).
And to enable smaller, more local, and more participatory democracy (i.e. governance). I’ve never got anarchy OK, not even when the Sex Pistols, explained it so eloquently 
6 Likes
For me its many things.
1: Privacy to dream and work things out in my own digital space till I want to share them (like thoughts in my head).
2: To know for sure that anything I create will be there forever, and the notion of data loss is a distant memory.
3: A world of educational open and free of any propaganda materials, a world where every opinion is just that, an opinion. The ability to research any subject you hear of and never be accused of being anti society or similar. Without knowledge we are as well going back to burning witches who don’t drown when we submerge them.
4: A digital world where there are no borders or limits to what you can learn or contribute to easily and freely.
5: An end to genuine hard working researchers and workers being treated like white mice in lab coats to be exploited by less hard working managers and directors for personal gain. Let research and hard things be carried out in the open at little cost and where possible supported, the “white mice in lab coats” never get paid much or received much attention, so the cost to us all is tiny (and needs to be improved). The exploitation can then be one for the whole world not some plc. I see a great many people in our history, Einstein, Tesla, Ramanujan etc. and a ton of artists all dying lonely in some wee abode out of the way, discarded like trash and I find that intolerable. This upside down value system needs reversed.
6: A worldwide federated news system that is full of fact and free of propaganda is also very important, we need to be ruled by factual information and majority consent. (I still wish minority protection though if possible, bit not agency manipulation of our thoughts).
7: A world where knowledge is in the domain of all the people and not controlled by any party in any way.
8: A system where we can educate everyone and allow continued valuable contributions to society from all.
9: Most important I want to see the people of the planet being given back the control they have lost and having their eyes open to the individualistic approach to ownership and the greed we see now as actually stealing from their own family, friends and strangers they do not meet. I want to allow people to see the second tv in the spare room cost the lives of some poor people in the world, I want those pictures to be up front and no degrees of separation. If we see the consequences of our actions then we will live better.
10: If we end up creating a space where true innovation can flourish and be supported then we can take our species forward much faster.
I have seen many people say I talk rubbish and am mad, plus an awful lot worse, but none of this is different from many years back. When the Internet first appeared these are the things many thought would happen. So if we can restart the whole thing again and make ownership of data and communications beyond the reach of any entities, government or commercial and keep this in the hands of the very people who create it all then I think its all easily possible. Importantly this means no ownership and we are on that road now, which is amazing. I see my name disappear into the background a wee bit now and thats amazing. This thing needs to be just that a thing, not a person design, project or idea, it just needs to be something we now have no matter how it got here. When we do that completely then all of what I have said is not only possible, it is likely inevitable.
So we need to see maidsafe as the first step in a journey and not the final answer, its a pretty huge leap, granted, but its a seed that we can grow greatness from. In a few years perhaps zero % of the current code will remain, who knows, but surely the vision will be as strong as ever and that’s what is important. We just need to get away from ownership and allow everyone to feel its theirs. I am delighted this is what we are all striving to do here.
23 Likes
We are made to feel guilt for not being exploited and pride when we are. This implies we are have lost volition and are not conscious. This has to end.
Communication and breaking down the walls and silos that divide us is central to ending this. The internet has been serving this purpose but is now being converted into a means of surveillance and control. Imagine converting the internet into Cable TV but with the added modification that every screen in the new system contains a camera that is always on. They want to make sure that you are actually watching the ads but they also want you to know they’ve got their eye on you and are always collecting evidence against you.
The sad thing is, there ARE TV’s with cameras in them now. Just wait until what you just described starts becoming a norm. We’re headed that direction. It’s scary.
I must admit, my first draw to maidSAFE was not nearly as noble as those who have responded so far, however, after reading, researching and listening to what people in this community have to say, I’m moving that direction. SAFE has already made me a better and more informed person.
My first draw to SAFE was twofold. Massive cheap storage space that acts as a network drive. As an avid torrenter, this is hugely appealing. Maidsafe can replace bitTorrent almost instantly. I am not against paying for products, however, I don’t feel that I should have to pay $12 to see a movie in the theater or $25 to brng it home on a disk if the movie ends up being terrible. I’m a huge fan of the “we the artists” project. If the movie is great, I’ll finish it and they’l get paid their full asking price. IfI don’t like it, I only pay for the 1/2 that I watched. That is perfect. I also HATE ads. Torrents take them out. If shows and movies start getting placed on SAFE, the creaters get paid directly and I don’t have to watch any more stupid ads.
My second draw was safecoin. It had just been introduced when I found out about it. I have a 14 TB RAID’d media server sitting in my office that I’ve already paid for, and being that I"m not the type of person to sell the content that I downloaded, its not helping me. If I could rent off that space that I haven’t used, or better yet, put what I already have on there on SAFE (even more reduntant than my raid) and rent out the whole thing, then it could work for me. That is incredibly intriguing.
The picture now though, the more I learn about SAFE :
It is liberating. Great firewall of china? Gone. Russia’s breaking TOR? Fine. Facebook selling my information? Not anymore. NSA beam splitting all my data to their HUUUGGEEE database? Go for it, it just looks like garbage going down the line. Since Snowden started leaking all his information, ive been getting more and more upset with the direction of this country (I"m American) is going as whole. This project, with some help from us, could start the change of a new direction. That’s exciting.
5 Likes
Does even that go far enough. I’d like an after the fact micro contribution model where I only pay if I want to, without begging or suggested price and only exactly what I think its worth and only for future works. I like this model because it cuts out any of the enclosure market manipulations. I thought it might be done on coin accrued or distributed on the basis of likely attention and then done on a scaling one click micro transaction type arrangement. By scaling it would, unless turned off, just up increment the amount per click if I hadn’t used it in a while. It might also just put to much unused excess back in the global end user MaidSafe pool. The point was the make sure the end user was primary or defining input and influence in all the market structures. This would cut out sponsorship in particular.
But people might not use it, its almost like a vote. Maidsafe chose to track and attribute attention based on what end users interact with. Which might be just as good or better, but it would have to cut down on spamming and attention for the sake of attention likely with software and de listing from honest search and trending services.
3 Likes
For the same reason I got excited about Freenet. I think people need some sort of free speech zone. The Internet used to be a place where people felt like they could have true free speech.
If you look at the Internet of the 1990s it wasn’t anywhere near as oppressive as it is now. There wasn’t as much censorship (I’m not saying there was none but not as much), and people were generally free to interact without feeling like they are under continuous surveillance by various agencies.
Now the Internet seems almost like it’s being molded specifically to help various agencies not only monitor activity but also to influence it. Propaganda is a much bigger problem than it was in the past and states are now deliberately trying to militarize the Internet.
Freenet was built with the idea that free speech is of a higher priority. It was produced right when the Internet started shifting. It was also at the time seen as a place for people to do file sharing (which may in fact be a function of free speech rights depending on interpretation). Napster had just been shut down at around the same time.
Now fast forward and SAFE Network is at a point where it’s got millions of dollars to pick up where Freenet left off and can either be Freenet 2.0 or perhaps totally decentralize the entire Internet.
I’m excited about SAFE Network because I see it as a way to have increased security without having to sacrifice liberties such as free speech and privacy. You get security because of the fault tolerance and decentralized nature of SAFE Network. You also get as much storage space as you could ever want in your life and this is important because storage space is artificially kept inflated for political reasons. The most important reason I’m excited about it is it is a technology which can end the bogus network neutrality debate.
The Internet companies aren’t satisfied with having took people’s money with the promise of fast broadband. Now they want to disrupt the nature of the Internet itself and try to turn it into cable TV. That is reason enough for me to get behind MaidSafe because in my opinion that cannot be allowed to happen even if we have to create decentralized ISPs and start over.
The ISP’s who control the wire should not be in the content business or trying to control what content we access. To me that crosses a red line because what if the contents were our thoughts? Would we want them telling us what we can think and what books we can read? Free speech is what allows free thought for better or worse.
1 Like
I like this but it still requires access to the internet which in turn requires access to electricity, computer hardware and so forth.
For me, it’s the possibility of a faster distribution model for large files, specifically for film and television. And moving one step closer to having a real, universal protocol for distributing video content that removes the need for a centralized third party to host the content.
It’s about moving massive files that traditionally cost a ton of money, and hosting video content for client review.
3 Likes
I think that’s one of the reasons for his mentioning MaidSafe as the first step in a journey. 
Of course there is much inequality around the world for access of resources but the ability to learn, collaborate and communicate on a global level without middlemen is a great start for tackling these greater problems.
And that is why I’m excited about MaidSafe. I want to see humans gaining the power to opt out of oppressive situations and to defy borders. I want to see corporations/monopolies disappear and politicians ignored. I want to see a society that’s horizontally organized with access to information and other resources flattened.
I’m excited about MaidSafe (and other “similar” disruptive tech) because I think it brings us closer to post-scarcity and as a consequence ultimate human freedom.
1 Like
I’m OVEREXITED about Maidsafe, because it’s a new lab where things will go @ blackhole speed instead of the speed of light. Generally the improvement of peoples lives, no limitation to experimentations and knowledge explosions.
I’m not really exited about the internet of things, but I know that Maidsafe will make it saver then the insecured old internet.
1 Privacy, I know that this starts at the hardware then the OS
2 Storage finally a place where I can store my files for cheap
3 Safecoin
4 The community
2 Likes
-
The paradigm shift to free speech and ‘un-censorable’ reporting which will be instantly available worldwide.
-
The fact that all information will ultimately be free and accessible.
-
The inability for governments to spy on its citizens (or one another).
-
The interwoven nature of safecoin, and it’s inherent qualities/advantages over other crypto currencies.
-
The incentive structures safecoin inbues which propel the growth, advancement and evolution of both the network and array of features/apps which will be built on it.
2 Likes
Agreed, this is why I like the satellite/balloon etc. off earth thing and with @happybeing proving solar powered small devices then we may be onto something. If we provide hardware to poor places they will simply and rightly sell them for food.
If, however, we provide farmers that earn money over time and provide internet access (even if they pay for bandwidth in safecoin, which is possible I hope just as buying bread with safecoin will be) then we may be able to take the ‘teach a person to fish’ approach. This I find hopeful, not simple just hopeful 
. So these farmers need a screen keyboard etc. which the odroid can currently do.
It might, just might work.
5 Likes
I have only known about maidsafe for about 2 days now, but I have been reading about non-stop. I remember back about 2 years ago I had a similar idea to this concept (I’m sure many people did) but of course I was limited by my lack of technical knowledge to even begin to put it into practice. It’s just incredible to see that this is actually being done. Also, after reading through the docs, the whitepapers, and these forums, I am convinced that this is not just some flash-in-the-pan startup trying to get bought out by an established player.
Anyway, as far as specific good that I think that can come of this:
-
Humans will be given the ability to find ways of getting along with each other and distributing resources that do not rely on the constant threat of violence. Right now governments are essentially perpetuated by the monopoly that society willfully (or sometimes not) grants them for the use of violence. I think that a world order founded on reason and voluntary cooperation is far worthier of our potential. I would hope that someday humanity could colonize other worlds, but if we continue to rely on violent non-democratic States to manage affairs then we’re sure to destroy this entire planet and ourselves along with it before that happens.
-
With privacy to communicate and share thoughts guaranteed 100% (or nearly so) the fear that breeds conformity will be drastically reduced. I am convinced that in a fearful society, the higher qualities such as rationality, altruism, and imagination are always the first casualties. I am American. I have to admit that right now the thought (however justified) crosses my mind that this very comment I am writing now might some day be used to cast suspicion on me by what is supposed to be “my” own government. It would be wonderful if nobody ever had to think like that. And it seems that the laws of Nature are the only ones we should have ever trusted in the first place to secure our human rights to privacy, dignity, and freedom of thought. In hindsight it seems silly that anyone thought otherwise.
-
I am very excited about the idea that everyone will be able to freely exchange art and culture (yes, I’m talking about movies, books, TV, and music) without economic or political limitations being imposed by profit-seekers or power-seekers. I think that if the world can build enough common cultural memes and norms through this kind of exchange, it will not be so easy to dehumanize “the other” which is ALWAYS a precondition for racism/war etc.
In any case, about me–I’m actually studying software engineering in university right now. I hope that soon I will have the skills to contribute to this project in a substantial way.
6 Likes
I am also non-technical but have found my own way to contributing value to Project SAFE. Anyone can! If you are studying software engineering and computer science, you’ll, no doubt be able to contribute your talents. Since the core code is C++, please learn this if you think you’d like to eventually be one who helps to maintain and improve the core of Project SAFE’s OSS architecture. Good luck to you! By the way, I host something called the SAFE cafe and write a blog called the SAFE Network blog. Please feel free to get hold of me at dl99pr@gmail.com if you’d like more information.
I want an anonymous peer-to-peer network where every book, movie, tv show, song, game, app, etc. is available to stream and download for free and can be shared without DRM. The only cost should be to pay people (with an anonymous crypto-currency) who provide resources (bandwidth, disk space, etc.) to the network. The network should have an API that allows the creation of applications (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Wikipedia, Google, etc.) and lets users create an account and authenticate.
MaidSafe seems to be the best system for that at the moment and it’s close to a beta launch (Q4 2014).
Just in case it’s not clear, I am completely against intellectual property and I am confident that we will see the end of IP in a few years. I believe it’s not merely a minor issue but one of the worst things that the state does.
7 Likes
Read my article about Network99 our new open source project that is completely congruent with your comments. Help us get it going…you’re the man. Here’s the read: https://medium.com/@DavidLasoff/network-99-571a553076c6
1 Like
What distinguishes these posts from spamming by the middlemen who are looking to cream their 1%? How will Maidsafe team deal with this type of thing on the forums in future. No offence and serious questions.
1 Like